


A Witch Among Knights: Prologue

by Lynks



Series: A Witch Among Knights [1]
Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Non-Fans welcome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25759744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynks/pseuds/Lynks
Summary: Inquisitor Lucia of the Ordo Xenos has called together a group of the finest warriors The Imperium of man has at it's disposal, The Space Marines, to handle a new Ork threat that has arisen in the Sotaret sector. These brave paragons of human strength and virtue have the might and weaponry between them to challenge any foe, or so they think. Inquisitor Lucia has received word that the Orks are wielding mystical eldritch abilities unlike anything the Inquisitor has ever seen. So she has decided to call in a favor, and enlists the help of Eldaneth, or as she is known in the gothic language, Raven, an Aeldari warlock, to bring her knowledge of strange and mythical Psionic powers to aid the Inquisitor's warriors in ensuring that the Ork powers do not get out of control.This work is designed to be at least somewhat accessable to non-Warhammer 40k fans, who are perhaps looking for a story that can be a stepping stone into understanding the universe of Warhammer 40k.
Series: A Witch Among Knights [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1868734
Kudos: 4





	A Witch Among Knights: Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This work is written with the hopes that even those who are not aware of the Warhammer 40k Universe can enjoy it.

The door to the showers slid open with a low hum. A girl who appeared to be in her late teens peaked her head inside and tilted it gently sideways, letting her pointed ears absorb every sound that reflected off of the white stain speckled tiles that lined the large community shower. Her footsteps fell so soft that the dripping of a loose tap managed to drown out the sound as she moved towards a row of gunmetal lockers. The locker door creaked as she pulled it open, her slender fingers effortlessly undoing the buttons of the tight nylon shirt, colored black. The colors of Inquisitor Lucia’s Deathwatch. What made her uniform stand out from her new comrades was the green patch on the right shoulder, a yellow eye stamped in the middle, representing the unique origins of this particular agent. As the young woman folded her uniform and placed it within the locker she looked down to see the name she had given the humans to call her printed in silver letters just above the breast pocket. “Raven”.  
The girl’s birth name was Uldathen, but she did not think that the humans she was working alongside would be able to do justice to her Aeldari name, so she translated the name’s meaning for them. Her home was an artificial world, a spaceship which dwarfed most human cities. The craftworld of Telba-Te-Ra where Raven grew up was not limited by such a dull scheme like the gray steel used by humans. The gentle thrum of Telba-Te-Ra’s heart was a peaceful pur to the Aeldari girl rather than the grinding noise of crude explosive engines. Her heart ached for home, trying to tune out the cacophony of the human vessel fate had seen fit to place her on.  
Raven walked slowly into the showers, now fully undressed save for an impressive blue stone she wore on a silver chain around her neck. She carefully inspected each shower head, questing for the chrome fixture that has the fewest stains. Raven was of a darker complexion than most of her fellow Aeldari and she found this perceived flaw heightened by the stark white of the tiles as she crossed to the least filthy of the shower heads. It took a bit of effort for her to get the knob to start moving but when it did warm water began to flow from the nozzle down her hair, which she had colored to be a blue so deep at a glance it looked black. The young Aeldari closed her eyes and pretended that she was back home, in her comfy apartment back on Telba-Te-Ra, that the water was much cleaner and didn’t turn cold seemingly at random, that the engines of the ship were the pulse of the Infinity Circuit, and that the consciousnesses she could sense around the ship were that of her own kin.  
Her mind at ease in her fantasy of home Raven washed her body while quietly humming her favorite song “The Ballad of Isha”. The soft melody began to take root inside of her lungs and it was not long before she could not help but begin to sing the words aloud. The poetry of the piece filled her heart with longing and grief just as the character off Isha felt for her lost love Kuranos and the actress who played the goddess had expressed when Raven witnessed the Harlequins perform when Raven was still small enough to sit upon her mother’s shoulders so she could see above the crowd.  
The hum of the shower room doors broke Raven out of her trance. She snapped her mouth shut and opened her eyes as she focused on the two crewmen as they strode in, the sound of their bootfalls echoing throughout the white tiled room. Raven rushed to finish cleaning herself, noticing out of the corner of her eye as one of the men, now only half dressed peered from the entryway to see who was there before ducking back behind the wall to speak to his partner.  
“Oi, Get a look at this, It’s the witch” he said in a hushed tone. It wasn’t long before it was two pairs of eyes staring at her. The Aeldari adjusted her hair so that her pointed ears were at least mostly covered by deep blue locks. The men made hushed comments for a few moments which Raven paid no serious attention to. Her being alien to the humans created a strange cocktail of exotic fascination and xenophobic wariness that she had already gotten used to. She allowed the two men to gawk just a little to give her time to push down her frustration and replace it with a smile she hoped was convincing.  
“Good evening crewmen” With a start they both moved out into the open, still clothed enough for her to recognize their blue uniforms as that of low ranking crewmen on the ship. They both stammered half hearted greetings to the girl, eyes struggling to find an appropriate place to look.  
“Don’t worry, I will be leaving soon”. The men awkwardly moved over to their lockers and began to undress. The comments Raven had overheard told her that these crewmen would have been the type to harass or even assault a more vulnerable target, but they feared her. Feared her for being a member of Deathwatch, for being an Aeldari, and for being, as they put it, a witch.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer:
> 
> The world of Warhammer 40k is ever shifting, and as Games Workshop often changes and retcons things about their universe, as such my information on certain aspects of the lore may be out of date or may have been changed since the posting of this story.


End file.
